Native Americans lived in the Owyhee desert for thousands of years. Today, ancestors of those early inhabitants still have a strong connection with that arid land and emphasize it contains many sites that are sacred to their people. The Shoshone-PaiuteTribe is among those that feel spiritually tied to the Owyhees and claim them as their ancestral home. Many tribal members remain in the area on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation. The reservation contains nearly three hundred thousand acres straddling the Idaho and Nevada border. It is nearly surrounded by many more acres of public lands. The Bureau of Land Management consults both the Shoshone-Paiute and the Shoshone-Bannock tribes regularly as it shapes policy in the region.